The Intel company has revealed its first 3D XPoint drive, the DC P4800X. Intel is calling its 3D XPoint SSDs Optane drives, Taking into account hardware and software overhead as well.

3D XPoint is a non-volatile memory (NVM) technology announced by Intel and Micron. Bit storage is based on a change of bulk resistance, in conjunction with a stackable cross-gridded data access array. Micron has claimed the technology will be about half the price of DRAM, but four to five times the price of NAND flash.

According to Intel, the P4800X is roughly five to eight times faster than leading SSDs at low queue depths, making it ideal for critical applications with aggressive latency requirements. The company says that it will allow for 2GB/s random read and write speeds. In addition, in terms of pure throughput, Intel says the drive is roughly three times as fast as its DC P3700 drive - an NVM drive capable of delivering 2,800MB/s sequential read and 2,000MB/s sequential write speeds.

Intel says that its Optane drives will automatically accelerate existing applications and claims that the P4800X will consume roughly 12-14 watts under a heavy load, which is slightly more power-efficient than competing high-end NAND solutions, as per Gamespot.